Chapter 2 – Safe as Houses

Hale looked around the mess at the Dahl and tried to figure out what the hell happened here. Trick wouldn’t be back for a few more weeks at the earliest so it hadn’t been him, well whatever it was it had left one hell of a clean up behind. Good thing this wasn’t his place he’d just leave it for Trick so the old man would have something to do when he got back. Wouldn’t do to have him feeling at loose ends.

He’d just come from visiting Dyson at his loft and while wolves healed fast the non-stop trauma of that place he’d been held at followed by the car accident had him healing nearly human slow, and wasn’t that just driving him up the walls.

Speaking of humans where was lil mama?

He hoped she was laying low somewhere until this all blew over. Orders were to kill all humans in the know on sight, Fae were being forced to kill long time pets and servants. Without Bo around to shield her Kenzi probably just decided she’d be safer steering clear of all things Fae for the time being. Hopefully when Bo came back she would to. Hell maybe they were together wherever they were.

Shrugging it off as a question for another time he headed back towards his family home to continue discussions with his father about how badly everything had turned out lately. He had never wanted to be the Ash in the first place, and now look where getting political had gotten him. Oh well, time to face the music so to speak.

Hale had just left his loft and Dyson tried to get from to door back to his bed without limping, and was beyond frustrated when he couldn’t. His body was healing he knew he could feel it, he also knew that he’d never healed this slowly before in all his days.

The only time he’d been this hurt had been when he’d tried to take down the Garuda and gotten his hind parts handed to him by a dozen of his minions.

Even then though he’d still been strong enough to stand on his own two feet and keep fighting, he didn’t have that now. He hadn’t felt this weak since he’d switched bodies with Kenzi at the Dahl, thanks to beer tainted with Gorgon blood.

Speaking of the little human he hoped she was alright. Hale had just told him about everything he’d missed while at that place and none of it was good. Marshal Law had been declared against humanity. He’d been alive a lot of years and yet he’d never seen anything like this before.

Sure there had been the occasional faction of humans that thought themselves hunters of the Fae who’d needed to be dealt with but this was going too far. Always in the past those human’s who’d proved themselves trustworthy were protected and yet now they were slaughtered along with the rest. Shaking his head he stopped trying to make sense of things that were senseless and instead focused on a problem he could solve. Where was Bo?

Kenzi looked around the room for like the millionth time and still couldn’t seem to find anything useful. She was well and truly stuck and she damn well didn’t like it! Where the hell was her rescue? Where was Bobo with her trusty pet wolf pup and her new Valkyrie stalker bitch? Why wasn’t someone on the floor writhing in agony from being succu-punched within an inch of their sanity?

What the hell was wrong with her life that she was always there for those around her and yet when it came down to it more often than not no one had her back when it truly counted? Inari took her and kept her for like a week and no one had noticed, was she really that forgettable? Where was her god damn cavalry?

Dark thoughts were not helping, she blamed the dark décor these walls were not helping her keep her normally cheery attitude in place, she needed to calm down and think this through a bit more. So where ever she was she was most definitely in the hands of a Dark Fae douche. The lack of primary colors sort of gave that one away, all that was missing was the glaring neon sign that read “We kill humans for fun wanna play”.

The Morrigan had obviously handed her over, and given her total hate on for all things Bo related it must have been for a damn good reason. Now all she had to do was think on who on the side of the dark was not only big and bad enough to get the head bitch in charge to give her up but who would even bother to do so?

It had to be someone she knew. While the room screamed Dark Fae the products and clothes inside of it most def screamed Kenzi. So it was someone who knew her style and her preferences. Also someone who would stick her in a fab, if creepy, room rather than a cage in their torture chamber.

What the F was even up with the dark Fae any way every single one she’d met either had their own torture room or knew where to find one they could use. God they were so messed up.

Come on Kenzi, stay on track, it wasn’t like she was all ADHD or something she could totes focus when she needed to. And baby did she need to right now.

So whoever this was obviously liked her at least a little. So who on team evil did she really know? That was easy she could count them on one hand really. One, the Morrigan, but she’d had her and let her go to this person so obviously not her. Two, Tamsin, Valkyrie extraordinaire with a total tude problem. Hates her yes, but not enough to go through all this and besides last she check soldier of doom didn’t have the pull to… well pull her away from the dark leader. Three, Vex –

That was it! Vex! God how could she have been so stupid before? Of course it was Vex! The only dark Fae in the running for the position of Morrigan if it came down to it. The only one with the power, if he had his Mesmer back, and connections to pull this off. But why hadn’t he just let her go then? Was he calling in a ransom or something? Was it even really him? One way to know for sure.

“Vex! You slime bag, where are you?”

Vex had finished his business for the night and had been watching Kenzi pace and pace for hours on end. She kept ripping the room apart looking for something, anything she could use to get out of her little box of a room. While it was a nice cage compared to some, he knew she would see it for what it was. Gilded though the cage may be it was still a cage at its core and people like her could never stand to be locked away like this. Just wasn’t in ’em.

He had spent most of his night doing a little digging, he wanted to know if the white hats were searching for their lost little lamb yet and he was just tickled by the news. They didn’t even know they should be looking for her. Bo was still gone, and the others just assumed that without her succubus here for her to hide behind Kenzi had run off to hide like the bar keep slash Blood King. Like his girl would ever just scamper off with her tail tucked, shouldn’t her friends know her better than that?

Oh if they only knew.

He was so absorbed in his thought he didn’t even notice when she stopped moving until he heard her voice loud and clear saying his name.

“Vex! You slime bag, where are you?”

So the little darling had figured it out had she? He wasn’t really all that surprised to be honest, out of all of those merry mothers she used to run with she was the most clever and resourceful. Of course she figured it out. Might as well go and ask little Nancy Drew there how she did it. No point hiding when the cat was out of the bag and who was he kidding he was much better at being in your face evil than with skulkin’ around and hiding.

“How’d you figure it out then love?”

The sound of the voice behind her made her whirl around as fast as she could. It was Vex, of course it was Vex, she was right. Being right, while nice and vindicating, didn’t really help her situation any though.

“Simple on the list of dark Fae strong enough to get me away from that chubby skank, who would bother to do so, and knows me well enough to stock a room of my faves there was just you. Congratulations you made the list.”

“Well, I always do love, I am the best after all. Best dressed, best sex, I’m just the best there is. Period.”

“Good to know, and while I file that away for future shudder factor why don’t you just show me the way out of here.” It was a long shot, but she’d try anything right now. Realistically she knew that if he’d been planning on letting her go he would have done it hours ago, but at the moment it was her only plan.

“Good try love, but no go. I’m afraid that with the succubus out of sight along with the barkeep, the Siren in tough straights, and wolf boy just back from the vet you’re safest here. Don’t you worry none though, trust in good old Vex, you’re safe as houses in this room.” She was afraid he was gonna say something like that.

“What do you mean Bo’s ‘out of sight’? Where is she?” Did those Fae fucks go after her bestie?

“No one knows lovie, she’s just vanished into the air like that Valkyrie and the sexy doctor lady. Who knows maybe they’re all off someplace having a nice cuddle, but until she’s within shouting distance again you should stay here.” She had a very bad feeling about this, like she didn’t really have a choice at all.

“What about that whole order to kill all us mere mortals, won’t you just be setting yourself up here?” Not that she was really itching to remind him of all the reasons why he should just kill her, but she’d rather know his reasoning than be blind-sided if he changed his mind.

“Nah, the only one that knows you’re here is the Morrigan and considering what I was doing to her when I made the deal to get you I don’t think she’ll be saying a squeaky peep about it.”

“I want to go home Vex.” Round about didn’t work maybe just stating it all up front and honest would. If it would get her out of here she was perfectly willing to play every card in her hand or lay them all out on the table.

“This is your home, that crack shack of yours isn’t good enough without your unaligned sex machine in residence. You’d be dead inside a week without someone looking out for you, so just sit back, relax, and enjoy the place. You’re gonna be here for a while ducks.”

She was so shocked she couldn’t even react when he vanished back out the door just as quickly as when he came in. She was trapped here.

Vex watched her pace some more while his own thoughts seemed to mirror her physical actions. He kept bouncing back and forth between what he wanted to do and what he should do.

What he should do was to contact the Siren and hand her over to the side of the Light, she did technically belong to them after all in a roundabout fashion, but he knew that if push came to shove the little whistler wouldn’t have the stones to stand up to his family for the girl. If his well to do relations found out that Kenzi was still alive and that the heir to their clan was directly defying an order to kill her they would be furious and Kenzi would end up dead one way or another.

What he wanted to do though that was another clusterfuck altogether. He wanted to keep the little minx. Bo was gone and none of her allies had any way of knowing that the tasty little goth hadn’t trailed alongside her when she made her exit, which meant that he could conceivably have until her return to put his plan into action. If he chose to do this, and he did it right, by the time the succubus resurfaced Kenzi wouldn’t even want to go back to her. She would be all his.

Oh sod it, he always was a very me oriented type of guy. He would do what he wanted and damn the consequences.